


Welcome to MJN Air

by Glowbug



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Coffee, Douglas meets Martin, Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-27
Updated: 2014-06-27
Packaged: 2018-02-06 10:32:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1854835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowbug/pseuds/Glowbug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Martin's first days at MJN Air. Written for the 2014 Summer Christmas secret Santa on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to MJN Air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rachelvanbora](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=rachelvanbora).



> Happy (late) Summer Christmas!

On the morning yet another new captain is due to start work at MJN Air, Douglas Richardson wakes at 5:30 itching for a drink.  
  
Those cravings hit him at the most _irritating_ moments. Douglas groans and yanks a pillow over his head, mentally cursing the early sunrises of summer. Beside him, Helena lets out a small hum and turns over in her sleep. For a moment he’s tempted to kiss her awake, but no. He has a flight today, and she is starting tai chi classes. One of them may as well be rested and given his unwillingly-wide-awake state it seems he’s lost the toss.  
  
After fifteen minutes he gives up on going back to sleep and eases his way out of bed, tiptoeing downstairs so as not to wake his wife. She likely won’t be up for another hour or two, but he scrambles eggs and fries bacon for two people anyway, leaving hers on a covered plate atop the microwave. He pointedly ignores the bottle of pilfered Talisker he left on the mantlepiece a few months ago; it’s a trophy, not a temptation. He should probably just sell the thing. Instead, Douglas brews coffee so strong his eyes bug out when he takes a sip, and swills it.  
  
He showers, shaves, and dons his uniform and the old Air England captain’s epaulets. He really should tell Helena the truth about that, especially as Carolyn has dashed his hopes of promotion for the fourth time in three years. No, the fifth. James, Kevin, Peter, Nigel, and now this new fellow, Martin Crieff. The latest in a string of ill-fated MJN captains.  
  
He takes his time driving to the airfield, even switching his epaulets along the way, but nonetheless he arrives early. Carolyn’s car is already in the lot, though Arthur’s is absent. Strange; Douglas suspects Arthur would be the first one to the airfield every morning if Carolyn wasn’t the only one with keys to the portacabin. The steward’s presence is strongly suggested, however, by the overwhelming smell of coffee drifting from the office. The outer door is ajar; Douglas pushes it open and strides in.  
  
He had expected that Carolyn and perhaps Arthur would be waiting for him, but they are nowhere to be seen. Instead, perched on the edge of the couch is a scrawny young man clutching a paper cup of milky coffee. His crisp blue uniform is slightly too big for him. His hat teeters on his head, doing nothing to contain the unruly ginger curls poking out from beneath it. His freckles pop against his face, and his entire body hums with tension though he hasn’t moved a muscle. He looks, quite frankly, scared out of his mind. At his feet is a worn but impossibly clean flight bag. On his shoulders are captain’s epaulets.  
  
Douglas’s first thought is that he had expected someone older.  
  
“Good morning,” he says.  
  
The new captain leaps to his feet, wide-eyed, and starts to extend a hand to Douglas. “H-hello, I’m—”  
  
He trips over his flight bag.  
  
Douglas jumps back. The new captain goes face-first into the floor, and the coffee spews in every direction. It soaks the flight bag, the carpet, the cuffs of Douglas’s pants and his shoes. The new captain yelps—whether in pain or frustration is unclear.  
  
“Good Lord!” Douglas exclaims. “Are you all right?”  
  
Martin Crieff wordlessly picks himself up off the floor, his face the color of Pepto-Bismol, as Douglas starts searching for towels and napkins.


End file.
